Category: Other Rules

You might remember that Peter of Grid based wargaming inspired my Terrain Cards. Terrain cards were actually part of Peter’s Campaign set in the English Civil War (see Grid Based Wargaming – ECW). There is quite a lot to this campaign – Peter wrote something like 45 posts on it and played 30 games. I love it. Tons of inspiration. And I appreciate the obsessive element that saw Peter completing this project – I think it took him 18 months.

We played Big Base Triumph in the Punic Wars – liked the Triumph rules but thought some of the troop types sucked. To really challenge ourselves and test out that impression, we played another, bigger, game with Iberians on the table in force. So “Light foot” for both Scutarii and Caetrati and “Javelin Cavalry” for Roman, Numidian, Carthaginian, big shield Iberians, and small shield Iberians. I felt, somehow, I was about to rub salt in the wounds. Of course this is Punic Wars.

I’ve been playing DBA for years, and all measurement is in multiples of 1 inch. However, many games are moving to base width as a measurement, which for most people are the 40mm wide DBx bases. But I’ve moved to Big Bases including for Big Base DBA. That means I need 2 inch measurements and 80mm measurements. Here is how I solved this problem.

Despite the fact I play DBA a lot, I’m always on the look out for a better game system for the Ancients period, including the Punic Wars. So when the guys said they’d be willing to try out Triumph I leapt at the chance.

Adam, Jamie and I had a go at 2 by 2 Napoleonics. Of course we used my normal Peninsular War figures, in 15mm, on Big Bases. Using Big Bases for the Peninsular War meant this was really 4 by 4 Napoleoncs.

I recently discovered 2 by 2 Napleonics by Rod Humble, John Rigsby and Eric Sprague. They are simple but elegant way of representing corps level actions with units as either brigades or regiments. Here is an overview of the rules and my take on them.

In 2003 Martin Craig sent me his Heart of Africa (Foundry) variant called Darkest Waikato. In hindsight I wish I’d published them on my site back then. But, in the principle that is it never too late to rectify old mistakes, I’m posting them now. All words are by Martin and the rules are copyright by Martin. You can download the rules as a PDF.

All my Peninsular War infantry/cavalry units are on Big Bases with two big stands per unit. Also I don’t want to combine small units in the South American Wars of Liberation because there are already only a few units on table and I want to represent them all. So I need some way to represent the number of men, and hence number of stands, in a different way to standard Lasalle.

The World War II version of Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargames is slightly more complicated than the Dark Age version (see 448 AD Battle Report). So Chris Harrod and I gave it a go. We played two games in an evening. I’m not a fan, of the WW2 variant and OHW in general. I tried. I really tried. We played four games in total, but I think I’ll give up on OHW now.

The sixth game in our Fall of Hispania Campaign occurred in 454 AD, 6 game years after the last battle. In fact we played both games in one evening using the Dark Age variant of Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargames. Chris Harrod rolled Roman and I got Suevi.

Chris Harrod came over and we played two games of our Fall of Hispania Campaign. The first battle occurred in 448 AD, 2 game years after the last battle. Chris rolled Roman and I got Visigoth.

I had intended to use Basic Impetus, and even revised the army lists to do this, but we ended up using the Dark Age variant of Neil Thomas’s One Hour Wargames instead. Both armies had six units and we used first Pitched Battle scenario. And we played on a 2’x2′ table as per using my big bases with One Hour Wargames.

“Night Ambush” is the scenario Julian Davies included in his Vietnam Era squad level skirmish rules called Platoon. The rules and this scenario originally appeared on the now defunct Grunt! website. With Julian’s permission I have republished them here.

Mission

November 1967, somewhere near the Cambodian border.

The 2nd Platoon of Bravo Company 22nd Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, is searching the jungle for the elusive North Vietnamese 141st Regiment. After a hard day’s slog spent bashing through the bush, elements of the platoon are detached from the company perimeter to prepare a night ambush.

Julian Davies’s “Platoon” is a set of squad level skirmish rules for the Vietnam Era. These rules were developed from the Avalon Hill game of the same name. Julian originally published Platoon on the Grunt! website, now defunct, so I have republished them here.